A press release was organized by the Diyarbakır branch of the Mustazafs Association to mark the 94th anniversary of the martyrdom of Shaheed Sheikh Said and his friends.

The statement underlined as great cruelty to hide the places of the graves of Sheikh Said and his colleagues for years, while demanded their graves to be revealed.

Uzeyir Yuva read the press release on behalf of Mustazafs Association in front of Grand Mosque following the Friday prayer.

"The fire that fell into the hearts after almost a century has not been extinguished; it has been preserved in the hearts of its lovers [for Sheikh Said and his friends]," Uzeyir said, further noted that 94 years had passed since the martyrdom of Sheikh Said and 46 of his friends since sentenced to death on 29 June 1925 by Independence Tribunal.

Reading that Muslim people entered a new process with the proclamation of the Republic, Uzeyir said, "The top-down ideologies imported from the West were adopted as state policy and the faith and values of the people were ignored."

"With the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, 'the committee of union and progress' mentality began to strengthen its existence and dictate its ideology to the people."

"Many massacres were committed to transforming into a secular life"

Yuva reminded that the caliphate was abolished and the Qur'an was forbidden to read. "Muslims were secretly performed prayers and other worship. Mosques were turned into barns, madrasahs were closed, and Adhan was read in the Turkish language."

"The society's resistance was forced to be broken and many massacres were committed in order to transform into secular life. While those were happening, on the one hand, Sheikh Said was emphasizing that the society should be kept together with 'religion' and 'Ummah'."

Sheikh Said opposed all the new system because he saw the disregard of both Islamic values and the rights of the Kurdish community as a violation of Allah's Commandments.

In this sense, Sheikh Said became the target of the regime and was arrested on April 15, 1925, surrounded by various conspiracies.

"Sheikh Said and his friends were taken to the gallows for not consenting to the persecution"

Drawing attention to the practices of the Independence Tribunal, Yuva continued as follows:

"The so-called trial of Sheikh said took 40 days. In the case of Sheikh Said, where 80 people were tried, 47 were executed. Even the 11-year-old boy of 'Saleh Beg from Hani', who was taken to the gallows after the alleged trial, had been asked to be executed. But the decision was changed at the last moment and the 11-year-old boy was sentenced to 10 years of heavy prison.

The fact that a child is sentenced to 10 years has also set an important record for revealing the true face of the Independence Tribunal.

Diyarbakır witnessed a massive massacre when the date showed June 29, 1925. A great Islamic scholar and his 46 friends were put on death row in an arbitrary and unlawful decision taken by the Independence Tribunal.

Sheikh Said, who devoted his life to Islam, and his friends were taken to the gallows for not consenting to the persecution exposed on the Muslim community.

The watchdogs of the Westernized regime, which fought against the values of the Muslim community and implemented policies of denial and assimilation, had put an entire society under pressure. As a handful of elites began to reign, the suffering of oppressed people has been written in the black pages of history.

It was seen how the belief and ethnic identity of a Muslim nation were suppressed, both through the practices of the Independence Courts and through the constitutions formed by the military junta in the following years."

Stating that all Muslims should scrutinize the struggle Sheikh Said, Yuva continued, "In particular, the Kurdish people should scrutinize the struggle of Sheikh Said well.

The words of Sheikh Said, "I don't mind you hanging me in worthless branches, surely my death is for Allah and Islam," should be signs for us and our future should be built upon those words.

ILKHA